Online Fundraising: Common Terms and Channels of Interaction

Fundraising on the Internet is one of the ways to find financial support for projects launched by non-profit organizations. In this article, we will review the concept of fundraising and definitions you need to know in order to understand the topic.

Online Fundraising: Common Terms

• Fundraising is an activity of attracting resources (human, material, informational) to non-commercial projects;
• Online fundraising is the collection of funds on the Internet. The goal of online fundraising is to build a trusting relationship with your audience;
• Fundraiser is a person who engages in resources;
• Donors are those who provide support to the organization;
• Fundraising cycle is a fundraising process;
• Internet acquiring is a technology that allows one to accept bank cards for payment via the Internet. Users of virtual bank cards and e-wallets who do not have physical media in the form of plastic cards can use Internet acquiring.

Fundraising channels on the web

1. Website. The website of a non-profit organization should have a special button “help” or “make a donation”. Also, the donor should have a choice of tools and ways to transfer money: bank transfer without opening an account, electronic payment systems (payment by credit card, debit from a bank account, payment systems and electronic wallets, payments from a mobile phone).
2. Social networks. Creating a page on social networks will help NGOs to attract the attention of supporters and to keep it, as well as to ask for help. Facebook has a special “help” button. Using it, the user can send a donation. Facebook completely abandoned the commission fees from donations and presented several new services for NGOs at once.
3. Emailing. The NGO site and social networks should help fund specialists to collect a base of potential donors. To do this, they need different ways to get e-mail addresses: subscribe to news, questioning, voting, collecting signatures.
4. Realization of souvenir charitable products on the web. It can be displayed in a special section “Products” in communities, social networks or on the project website.
5. Online services that are designed to collect private donations to non-profit organizations.

The volume of online donations is increasing every year all over the glove. According to Yandex, the volume of online donations doubled in 2018. The average size of online donations increased by 28%.